Researchers at Stony Brook University in New York and the University de Oviedo in Spain have identified three new structures of carbon.
The corresponding research paper titled ‘Denser than diamond: Ab initio search for superdense carbon allotropes’ was published by Physical Review B in its online edition dated June 7, 2011.
Stony Brook University research team includes postdoc Andriy O. Lyakhov, Artem R. Oganov, a professor of Geosciences and Physics, and Qiang Zhu, a graduate student of the university.
According to the research team, the three new forms of carbon should have a density of more than 3% to that of diamond. Electrons of materials having greater density should move quickly due to higher kinetic energy.
As per Zhu et al calculations, the new carbon structures have almost equal hardness as the diamond. They have diverse electronic properties with the band gap range between 3.0 and 7.3 eV, which allows the possibility of altering their electronic properties. The prediction of 7.3 eV band gap for the tP12 form is the highest value for all structures of carbon.
The new carbon structures will have ultra-low compressibility. i.e., when exposed to pressure, they will demonstrate minimum contract when compared to other materials, including diamond. They should have better light dispersion and higher refractive indices than diamond, making them to exhibit better color effects and brilliance than the diamond.
Researchers expect that the new carbon forms, due to their high densities, could be produced by directed growth on substrate or by shock compression of low-density carbon forms. According to Artem R. Oganov, if the production of these carbon forms is possible, they could be used in key technological developments.